Ba'athist Iraq
Ba'athist Iraq (1968-2003) was the period of Iraqi history during which the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party ruled over the country. Saddam Hussein was the eminence grise of Iraq from 1968 until his takeover in 1979, and he ruled over Iraq from then until his overthrow in 2003. The regime instituted secularism and was committed to Arab nationalism, which led to its persecution of Kurds in the north of the country in the al-Anfal Campaign and in several anti-Kurdish campaigns. Iraq was ruled as a dictatorship until the Iraq War in 2003, and it was replaced by the present-day republic of Iraq, a Shia and Kurdish-dominated government. History ]]The Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party's Iraqi Regional Branch seized power in Iraq from Abdul Rahman Arif's corrupt government in 1968 in a coup led by Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, and the Ba'ath Party implemented its nationalist policies across the country. Although al-Bakr was the nominal leader of Iraq, his deputy Saddam Hussein was the true leader of the country as the grey eminence behind the Ba'athist leadership of the country. The quasi-socialist stance of Iraq led to it aligning towards the Eastern Bloc, and it was an ally of the Soviet Union in the region. Ba'athist Iraq's military received training and weapons from the Russians during the Cold War, and the United States would go on to arm Iraq against its enemy of Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. ]]The nationalist and secular stance of the Ba'ath Party led to the persecution of Kurds, Islamists, and the liberal wing of the Ba'ath Party. Saddam forced al-Bakr to resign as leader of the Ba'ath Party in 1979, with al-Bakr claiming that his resignation was due to "health reasons". Saddam became the dictator of Iraq, and under his watch, his close family members from Tikrit and other Sunni Arabs came to lead the country, although Minister of Foreign Affairs Tariq Aziz served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Saddam (Saddam also donated millions of dollars to an Assyrian church in the United States). The Ba'athist regime allowed more opportunities for the people loyal to it, but political opponents would be sent to the horrible Abu Ghraib prison, and the regime hired people to spy on their neighbors and report if they were opponents of the regime. Saddam, a nationalist, wanted to increase Iraq's role in the world, so he decided to expand the uses of the intelligence services of the country into international operations; he hired Carlos the Jackal to carry out the 1975 OPEC siege to weaken Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Iran to prevent them from responding to his renewed anti-Kurdish campaign. ]]Iraq went through several years of troubles in the late 1970s and the whole of the 1980s. Saddam had many of his former Ba'athist colleagues be assassinated, and he proceeded to declare war on the new Islamic republic of Iran in 1979 to take over Khuzestan and the Shatt al-Arab waterway. The ensuing Iran-Iraq War saw the United States give arms to both Iran and Iraq, their two enemies, while the Soviets provided weapons and training to Iraqi Army soldiers. The Iraqis failed in their offensives and were forced to fight a defensive war, with the Iran-Iraq border and al-Faw Peninsula being some of the main battlegrounds of the war. In 1988, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire, ending the war without any territorial gains for either side. Iraq was heavily in debt due to using Kuwaiti oil, and Shi'ites in the country were inspired to rebel by the Iranians; Iran showed that it could defend itself from the Iraqis, and Saddam's incapability was shown. In 1990, he made the rash decision of invading Kuwait to annex the country and its oil fields rather than repay his debt, leading to a United Nations coalition being formed to liberate Kuwait. In February 1991, the UN forces defeated Iraq in one week in the "Gulf War", with the United States and Saudi Arabia being the main UN combatants. The defeat of Iraq led to spirited uprisings by Kurds and Shi'ites but, without help from the UN coalition in the Arabian Peninsula, the rebellions were crushed. insignia]]From 1991 to 2003, Iraq was debilitated by the Gulf War ceasefire, which ensured that Iraq would not have a large army, air defenses, or a tough military, similar to the Treaty of Versailles. The USA and United Kingdom regularly bombed Iraq to retaliate against its attempts at building SAM defenses, and Iraq was constantly weakened by NATO bombing. However, Saddam continued to oppress Kurds and Shi'ites and resumed his brutal rule. In 1993, Saddam began the "Faith campaign" to return the Iraqi people to the Islamic faith, and Islamic rules were enforced. Public consumption of alcohol was illegal, while consumption at all in Shi'ite holy cities was also illegal. The Qur'an was taught in the school curriculum for all grades, financial projects became focused on building new mosques, amputation was instituted as a punishment for corruption and theft, the Fedayeen Saddam engaged in a campaign of beheadings, and suspected prostitutes were executed by the government. Iraq's ideology would now move towards a mixture of Ba'athism and Salafism, and the government gave up its policy of having a pluralist society by abandoning secularism. In the later 1990s, Saddam supposedly tried to increase Iraq's strength by building chemical weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, and the United States and NATO used this as an excuse to invade Iraq to finally depose Saddam. In 2003, troops from the US, UK, Australia, Poland, Spain, and Denmark invaded Iraq and deposed the government in a matter of months, replacing the Ba'athist government with a new government ruled by the Shia majority and the ethnic Kurdish minority. Many leading Ba'athists were killed or captured, but some like Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri would go on to lead resistance against the government. Most traces of Ba'athist rule were erased, with Saddam statues being toppled and posters being torn down. Gallery Iraqi Army Gulf War.jpg|Iraqi army uniforms from the Gulf War Iraqi woman poster.png|An advertisement in Ba'athist Iraq Camel Kebab House.png|The Camel Kebab House in Almaden, Iraq Saddam Hussein Buhriz.png|Saddam graffiti Saddam wall Buhriz.png Saddam Iraqi flag Baghdad.png|A propaganda poster of Saddam Hussein Saddam graffiti Baghdad.png|A wall of Saddam propaganda Saddam mural Hillah.png|A mural of Saddam in al-Hillah Abbasid Doner Kebab.png|Abbasid Doner Kebab store Hillah.png|The city of Hillah Hillah mall.png|A mall in Hillah Haditha tank.png|An M1 Abrams tank in the ruins of Haditha at night. Iraqi insurgent Saddam poster Baghdad.png|A Ba'athist insurgent passes a poster of Saddam Hussein during the October 2007 Baghdad offensive. Saddam Square.png|Saddam Square in Baghdad, 2007 Ba'athist mural.png|A Ba'athist mural Terminator Baghdad.png|A poster of "The Terminator" in Baghdad Saddam defaced.png|A defaced portrait of Saddam General Saddam.png|A portrait of Saddam in Abdallah Saddam thumbs up.png|A mural of Saddam Demographics Iraq population 1992.png|Population in 1992 Category:Nations Category:Republics